Local government to have seat at Brexit negotiating table, says Communities Secretary

The response to leaving the European Union “has to be a radically expanded role for local government”, the Communities Secretary has said.

In a speech to the Local Government Association’s conference, Greg Clark said he had successfully argued that local government should be represented at the table when it came to negotiations on the terms of the UK’s exit.

The minister said he would ask the LGA’s chairman, Cllr Gary Porter, to put together a team “representing all parts of local government; all parties and all parts of the country to make sure we make good use of this seat at the table”.

The LGA had previously called for local authorities to have a role in the negotiations.

Clark told delegates: “When we are transferring powers from the EU to Britain I think it is essential that Whitehall is not the default destination for them.

“For years we have been urging subsidiarity – the principle that power is held as close to the people as possible – on the European Union. We now must apply it at home and ask first whether powers and funds can be transferred to local government.”

The Communities Secretary also acknowledged that it was essential that the Government confirmed, as soon as possible, the continued availability of the structural funds which co-fund investments in infrastructure and economic development.

“The programme runs from 2014 to 2020 and it would be madness to put at risk major job-generating projects when they are already underway and much-needed,” he argued.

In his speech Clark also announced the launch of an official consultation on business rates retention, and insisted that devolution deals were “very much available to all of the country”.

The Communities Secretary said: “No place is the same and no deal should be the same. The geography and powers and governance that are right for one place will not be right for another. But in every case I will look for local agreement, not central imposition.

“Now I know that in many cases it would seem easier to give a standard blueprint and compel authorities to adopt it. But if you believe in devolution as I do that is to miss the whole point. I will not compel any council to join any devolution arrangement. It needs to be locally agreed.

“But in a Britain in which the question has changed from whether to devolve to how significantly, there is a huge opportunity for leaders who are willing to work together in harmony to take powers and budgets which can be used to magnify the impact on the lives of their residents.”